Two Maximal Facts Examples

Hmmm, Let's see. That would be NT Wright at the left and Dale Alison on the right

Opening Prayer - Ps 22

Scholarly Approaches to the Resurrection outside of Evangelicalism

NT Wright

Dale Alison

NT Wright on the resurrection

His Book:" The Resurrection of the Son of God" from chapter 18, "Easter and History"

https://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Christian-Origins-Question-Vol/dp/0800626796/

According to Wright, what caused their belief in the resurrection of Jesus?

• The emptiness of the tomb

• The meetings with the risen Jesus

• The origin of the disciples' belief in Jesus' resurrection

The Tomb and the Meetings, 7 Steps

1. There is resurrection in the OT, not in Greco Roman culture. The world of second Temple Judaism supplied the concept of resurrection
   -The "strange" stories in the 4 Gospels about an empty tomb and appearances

2. Neither the empty tomb or the appearances by themselves would generated the early Christian belief
   -An empty tomb without appearances or appearances with an empty tomb would not be sufficient to generate the belief in Jesus' resurrection

3. However, an empty tomb and the appearances would have presented a powerful reason for the emergence of belief
   -By themselves, the empty tomb and the appearances are each insufficient, but taken together they are sufficient to create belief

4. The meaning of resurrection with second Temple Judaism makes it impossible to conceive of the reshaped resurrection belief emerging without it being known that a body had disappeared, and that the person had been discovered to the thoroughly alive again

5. The other explanations sometimes offered for the emergence of belief do not have the same explanatory power
   Other Explanation: Cognitive dissonance. The disciples had such a strong belief in the resurrection, that when it never happened, they simply believed harder.
   Response: However, Wright maintains the disciples did not have an expectation of resurrection. Rather, the disciples had an expectation that Jesus would rightly take his place as Messiah and King who would usher in a second Kingdom of David where the Romans would be defeated. After the crucifixion, this hope of the disciples was destroyed and the disciples were simply devastated. The resurrection and appearances were simply the last thing they expected.

6. It is therefore historically highly probable that Jesus' tomb was indeed empty on the third day after his execution, and that the disciples did indeed encounter him giving every appearance of being well and truly alive

7. What explanation can be given for these two phenomena?
   "... we have got this far by following the historical argument, not by invoking any external a priori beliefs."

William Lane Craig uses NT Wright to defend the resurrection

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/reasonable-faith-podcast/doubting-the-resurrection/

Dale Allison on the resurrection

His Book: "Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters"

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0567029107/

"That Allison should, despite his skeptical arguments, finally affirm the facts of Jesus' burial, empty tomb, post-mortem appearances, and the origin of the disciples' belief in Jesus' resurrection and hold that the resurrection hypothesis is as viable an explanation as any other rival hypothesis, depending upon the worldview one brings to the investigation, is testimony to the strength of the historical case for Jesus' resurrection."

-William Lane Craig

Allison approaches the resurrection as a skeptic who considers himself as a "cryptic deist" who wonders what it would take for the disciples to believe it

1. As he thinks his Christianity could exist without the "happy ending" of the story being the resurrection

2. But he would like to believe in a God that could do such a thing

3. It would underscore the goodness of creation

4. Give hope of our existence after death

• His "Formulas, Confessions, Appearance Stories" he finds in the gospels and "do not ... take us much beyond 1 Cor 15:3-8 and this is good enough.

• His "Seeing Things" showcases "collective appearances" and "multiple recipients" .... "must lead to something. But what?" Apparitions of the departed that people experience "are both seen and heard", "are seen by one person and later by another", and "are seen by more than one percipient at the same time" ... but "Apparitions do not, furthermore, typically eat or drink, and they are not seen by crowds of up to five hundred people". Jesus's resurrected body was apparition-like but more.

• His "Opened Tomb and a Missing Body?" has seven reasons why the empty tomb is a myth and a legend and seven reasons why the empty tomb could be a historical fact.

Seven reasons why the empty tomb is a myth and a legend

1. Mark is considered the only significant empty tomb source in Mark 16:1-8, not enough independent sources

2. Mark's story in Mark 15 and 16 is considered a fiction based on Daniel 6:6-23

3. Mark ends his story as they all fled from the tomb in terror and amazement - so it is considered invented at a later date

4. Moderns have problems with the miraculous in general and resurrection in particular

5. 1 Cor 15:4 says Jesus was buried, but Paul does not mention Joseph of Arimathea, he never mentions empty tomb, he did not know about an empty grave, therefore, the empty tomb must have originated after Paul

6. If Christians had a physicalist view of the resurrection, that implied an empty, but no empty tomb location was ever identified

7. Anyone can compile an ancient list of legendary stories about empty tomb and disappearing bodies

Seven reasons why the empty tomb could be a historical fact

1. Matt 28:11-15 has Jewish authorities starting a rumor that the disciples robbed the tomb, why would this be an issue if there was no resurrection

2. There was a Jewish tradition of venerating tombs, the fact that there is no tomb to venerate Jesus, when it would have been easy to locate it, might be evidence of the resurrection

3. Paul's language in 1 Cor 15 assumes an empty tomb. Also, Paul was a Pharisee and that Pharisees believed in resurrection

4. Many have insisted that the early Christians could not preach Jesus as raised unless his tomb was known to be empty

5. In Mark 16:1-8, so much theological detail is left out and so little historical content is presented, that this might give stronger weight to a real historical fact, little such that it is, that there really is an empty tomb described in Mark 16

6. NT Wright is probably "on to something" (see Wright's 7 steps above at steps 3 and 5). Cognitive dissonance was not the issue as the disciples were seemingly totally unprepared for the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus. These were the last thing they expected

7. Women, not men, discovered the empty tomb. This observation has only been explored in the last century, it is a recent argument. According to NT scholars, the criteria of embarrassment, that is if an embarrassing situation is left in the gospel accounts, it is more likely to be true rather than made up by the author

• There is a case for both views above, but "with great hesitation," Allison says the case for the empty tomb is slightly stronger than the case against it.

• Allison also affirms the history of the Joseph of Arimathea story, who was acting under the Sanhedrin as they did not believe in resurrection, there was a well known tomb location that could have been verified as empty

Allison also addresses the bereavement of the disciples. Shortly after his death, his followers saw him again. (This happened to me after my dad died. For a month afterwards, I saw him from time to time)

• Early Christians experienced the presence of Jesus. There is the near presence of the deceased.

• His death triggered grief and sadness

• Jesus was idealized by his disciples

• His death could trigger anger as well

• Grieving people seek others who knew the deceased to share their stories

As an aside and finally, Allison knows the views of Habermas and Wright and says he is less "gung-ho" in his apologetics than they are

William Lane Craig on Dale Allison

https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/scholarly-writings/historical-jesus/dale-allison-on-jesus-empty-tomb-his-post-mortem-appearances-and-the-origin/